Bring-Back-Powell

Houston by the combined length of the Flemington, Mooney Valley, Sandown and Caulfield straights. Houston is chronically underrated by DL posters and would be our clear 3rd best player behind Gawn and a fit and healthy Trac.

A yes please from me. Kicked 4 snags in one of Port’s finals last year and was/is expected to be a key part of Port’s future forward line.

Yeah he was a fixture in the side when Geelong started 7-0 and was getting his 19 touches a game. He was then omitted for our game which raised eyebrows among the Cats supporters. Came back a couple of weeks later for 3 games when Geelong started losing a number of games, and then wasn't really seen again. Could be a sneaky good/rebound kind of recruit for a club next year.

Beefy stats in this last VFL game: 25 touches, 12 marks and 2 goals.

Against Freo we lost the clearances 47-16 without a recognised ruck against Darcy and LJ (the rare game where the combo actually played in the later rounds - yay for us!) We simply couldn't compete in the middle that day and it was a list management melt down as far as I'm concerned. If Campbell played that game, could anyone take a guess what the clearance differential would have been? If he does come across, he'll actually be an important acquisition as we can't rely on Gawn to play 23 games. We also can't throw JVR to the wolves for more than 5 minutes a quarter. His output waned in the latter part of the season aside from the GC game.

His game was fine that night. I was just flabbergasted that he got 3 votes in a game given many posters denigrated him all year, and Kane Cornes suggested he was the worst key forward in recent years.

After all the accolades afforded to ANB for his tagging role on Nick Daicos on Kings Bday, Nick actually got Brownlow votes.

Petty somehow snagged a 3 voter against Geelong…

Trac 10 votes after 4 games!

Any other AFL and MCC members around here that have secured a seat for the big one? Will be a belter of a game to attend.

He's not a good AFL player but if it means we don't have a repeat of the Petty and JVR debacle facing the Darcy's and Jackson's of the league then the acquisition would make sense. The club really needs a ready made ruckman by trade on the list outside of Gawn. We paid dearly for it in the Freo game in which the game was over before it even started.

I really hope for Fullarton’s sake that he would have been behind Forte and Smith in the ruck depth if he were still at Brisbane this year. Otherwise, it would have been a yes to your good question. He’s probably pondering the question as well.

If you read my earlier post: 1) I praised our 2021 finals series achievement by stating we were the third most dominant team since 1990 in terms of cumulative margin. 2) I defended the COVID claim by stating the 2021 season (as opposed to 2020) was just like any other in terms of match and season length. If you think that’s undermining our achievement then good for you. As for the “rent a crowd” claim, I have no recollection of posting it, but if I did was I wrong? How many West Coast and Freo supporters logged on to scab membership codes all the while pretending to be MFC supporters?

For sure. As would Sydney supporters. Potentially 4 GF losses in 10 years without winning one.

Prepared to eat humble pie wit that post, but he’s still an elite coach. The Best neutral final I’ve attended (behind the 2012GF) as it didn’t involve Collingwood wining it.

I would give anything to have Chris Scott as Melbourne’s head coach next year. This mob was a 7-8 side at best at the start of the year. Absolutely gets the best out of his players at his disposal and clearly has a system that can stand up in September.

That’s a fair question re the MCG. Our form at the G was quite ordinary in the second half of the season. 1) Ordinary low scoring scrappy win over Essendon 2) Shock loss to GWS 3) Even more of a SHOCK draw to Hawthorn 4) Beaten by a fellow flag contender Dogs from start to finish in what was considered a litmus test at the time 5) A “meh” win over a mediocre Adelaide where we allowed a big run of opposition goals in the mid part of the game. We’ll never know if we would’ve handled the MCG for a September campaign, but our interstate form for most of 2021 was tremendous.

To all those complaining about the umpiring, did we benefit from any dodgy calls or was it only Freo that benefited?

Does he cop heat for letting Grundy and Jordon go to Sydney to play in a grand final, for minimal compensation? And yes I understand JJ was an unrestricted free agent on bugger all salary, but the facts remain that we did not value, appreciate and anticipate what an asset he was capable of being and that is the art of being a successful list manager.

Definitely some similarities between us and Port. Contest and defence, inefficient inside 50 entries, impotent forward line, inaccurate. No surprise that our last 3 games against Port have been sub 8 point margins either way.

The MFC had the third best finals series in the AFL era from an accumulated margin perspective behind Essendon in 2000 and Geelong in 2007. For that we should be so proud of the boys. As for the criticism that we won it in a COVID year, I think people mix up 2020 with 2021, whereby 2020 was a shortened year and had those Mickey Mouse 15 minute quarters. 2021 was a genuine 22 game season with normal length quarters. Such a pity that 30,000 odd Melbourne club, AFL and MCC members missed out on a September to remember but it’s pointless sooking it about these days.

If he doesn't play against us on that wet Thursday night this year, we go 12-11 instead of 11-12. Kept bobbing up for goals when we tried to make inroads on the scoreboard in the second and third quarters.

So we're effectively trading half of Grundy's proceeds (not sure what we did with pick 46 last year), Neale-Bullen and a speculative late pick for a late first rounder.

One of those fixture quirks where Port and Sydney annually play each other just the once. Bit like us and the Dons.

Hit the nail on the head. How many times was the ball just about to go out of bounds in our forward 50, only for an opposition defender to take possession, waltz through 3 broken tackles and set up a punishing turnover going the other way. That's one aspect I absolutely hated about our football in 2024.